Steve Ells Quotes

For too long, great food has really only been available in high-end restaurants and specialty food markets, but Chipotle is making the same gourmet quality food available and affordable so everyone can eat better.

Our commitment to serving produce from local farms and other sustainable sources is one of the ways we are changing the way people think about and eat fast food.

One thing I'll tell you is the food in Sacramento is off the charts. You've got good Asian food, the farm system where everything is natural, which I believe in. I like organic.

I started Chipotle with the idea to create an experience that's fast - and not fast food.

I like Monoloco in Petersfield, Hampshire, and Little Dorrit in London's Borough Market. Everything's delicious, healthy, and inexpensive.

The traditional fast food model is built on buying the cheapest ingredients - and that usually means poor-quality, heavily processed foods. But you can use quality ingredients, cook food using classic cooking techniques, and still serve something that's fast and inexpensive.

One of the pivotal moments for me was realizing that our 'food with integrity' approach at Chipotle was satisfying my passion. That's about bringing the best quality, sustainably-raised ingredients to everyone: chicken without antibiotics; beef without hormones. These ingredients were only available in high-end restaurants, not mainstream places.

We want our communities to know what real food is.

I want to take Chinese cooking to the next level and bury the takeaway mentality.

There's no doubt about it: people want local, real food.

Chipotle is really showing that there's a better way to do fast food.

Young people, especially, are turning away from McDonald's towards healthy, locally-sourced options like Next Door and Sweetgreen.

School lunch should be made fresh on the premises every day. Our children deserve that respect.

Nowadays, food needs to be healthy, local, sustainable and not filled with too much fat, salt or sugar. It should be slow-cooked and seasonal. That's my vision.

I take my kids to a farmers' market each Sunday to buy organic produce.

As far away as you can get from the process of mechanisms and machinery, the more likely your food's going to taste good. And that - that is probably the largest thing I can hand to anybody is let your hands touch it. Let them make it.

People complain that cities don't have fresh, sustainable food, but it's just not true.

I love the idea of farm to table and farmer's markets. I enjoy a meal more if I know I'm eating something that's good quality and good for me.

My goal is to make Italian food clean and accessible and beautiful and tasty, with simple ingredients that people can find at a local grocery store, because people don't want to go to a gourmet shop in search of items that will sit in their pantry for years after they use just a teaspoon or pinch of them.

Sweet Washington cherries and Walla Walla onions are two of my favorite local treats.

I inherited the old family turkey farm, and I'm turning it into a fun place to go for my kids.

Whenever possible, I use local, fresh ingredients, just because it tastes and feels better to eat an egg or a tomato or a hamburger that wasn't flown halfway around the world, that didn't travel on a truck and get stuck in traffic jams, that hasn't been sitting in a supermarket's refrigerator case for days.

I love how Jamie Oliver makes seasonal, local foods in a rustic way, without a lot of fuss.

I want to know where my food comes from and the conditions in which it's grown. I also want to embrace traditional British produce, and seasonality.

I grew up in Italy, and our country is a country of great agriculture and food produce. It wasn't like I was urban and only knew about high-heeled shoes and purses and never knew where my eggs came from.